The present invention relates generally to the field of floating point processing, and more particularly to performing a multiply-add operation. In computing, the multiply-add operation is a common instruction that determines the product of two numbers and adds that product to a third number (e.g. D=A×B+C). Some computers may contain dedicated logic to perform a multiply-add operation. Others may perform the operation in software, by determining the values of the operation's components (the product or the sum) separately. The multiply-add operation is a common operation in floating point processors and regularly is used in many areas of computing such as digital signal processing or computer generated imagery. Also the multiply-add operation is a robust instruction that can be used for other calculations such as addition (e.g. D=A×1.0+C) or multiplication (e.g. D=A×B+0.0).